Abstract

An experiment was conducted with 58 rice genotypes at ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research Farm, Hyderabad during kharif 2014 season and evaluated for 10 yield attributing characters using D2 analysis in order to study the diversity pattern among the genotypes. The genotypes were grouped into 13 clusters, of which clusters VII and XII (36.93) followed by clusters II and VI (33.48) and clusters XI and XIII (33.35) recorded maximum inter-cluster distance. Hence, the genotypes in cluster VII viz., E-2940, E-3118, TJP-5, TJP-198, TJP-9, E-3138 and TJP-142 had wider diversity with RPHR-1005 in cluster XII, and the genotypes in cluster II viz., TJP-2, TJP-221, TJP-81, TJP-138, TJP-186, TJP224, E-2875, TJP-229, TJP-60, TJP-58, TJP-99, TJP-6, TJP-191 and E-2710 had wider diversity with IBL-57 in cluster XIII and these lines may be utilized in further breeding programme for the exploitation of hybrid vigour. The intra-cluster distance was maximum in cluster VII (9.54) followed by cluster V (8.91) and cluster IV (8.28) indicating hybridization involving genotypes within the same clusters may result in good cross combinations. The traits viz., panicle weight, test weight and total grain number per panicle together contributed 94.37% towards total divergence. Therefore, these characters may be given importance during hybridization programmes.